Interactive and conventional television information system

ABSTRACT

An interactive television information system coupled to a cable television system having a headend for supplying information services and an information service distribution network for delivering information services to subscriber televisions. Each subscriber television is associated with a home interface controller. The home interface controllers receive the television information signals and include a data transceiver for data communications. A subscriber selection device associated with a home interface controller permits subscriber interaction through the data transceiver with an assigned interactive controller from a plurality of interactive controllers. The assigned interactive controller is in communication with the information sources and in television communication with its assigned home interface controller. Selection of an information source nay be made through channel selection of an apparent channel from any of a first group of apparent channels and a second group of apparent channels. Different information services on different apparent channels from the first group of apparent channels are provided to a given home interface controller via the same television information signal as the subscriber changes channel selection from one of the apparent channels in the first group of apparent channels to another apparent channel in the first group of apparent channels. To receive apparent channels from the second group of apparent channels, a home interface controller simply selects the television information signal at its input corresponding to the selected channel.

This is a divisional of copending application Ser. No. 08/056,958 filedon May 3, 1993, which is a continuation in part of U.S. application Ser.No. 07/877,325, filed May 1, 1992, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,412,720 which inturn is a continuation in part of U.S. application Ser. No. 07/754,932,filed Sep. 10, 1991, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,220,420 which is a continuationin part of U.S. application Ser. No. 07/589,205, filed Sep. 27, 1990,issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,093,718. These related applications are herebyincorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to cable television systems, particularlythose having two-way communications capability with the user.

BACKGROUND ART

Bandwidth problems have long restricted the ability of cable televisionsystems to provide information services to subscribers. Although acoaxial cable system may permit a cable system operator to provide, forexample, 50 television channels, each 6 MHz wide, with a total bandwidthof 300 MHz, this total bandwidth is insufficient to permit anarrangement wherein each subscriber may have, in addition to these 50channels, an interactive information service that functionsindependently of interactive information services to all othersubscribers and provides full color video, motion typical of movies ortelevision, and sound.

The reason for the insufficiency in bandwidth is apparent on aconsideration of the demands on the system. Typically a subscriber on acable system obtains information services over a communication path thatstarts at the headend, proceeds over one of typically a number oftrunks, and then over one of a number of feeders, and then over one of anumber of taps. Each feeder may have, for example, fifty or moresubscribers, and each trunk might serve a hundred or more feeders. Theresult is that 5000 subscribers per trunk is not atypical. Thus merelyto provide a private one-way information service, and nothing else, toeach of these 5000 subscribers would require the trunk to carry 5000different signals, each using about 6 MHz of bandwidth, and would alonerequire a trunk bandwidth of 30 GHz, which is nearly two orders ofmagnitude greater than provided by a typical coaxial cable system.

The use of fiber optic trunks can assist in providing additionalbandwidth, but to the extent that coaxial cable secondary trunks andfeeders are used in a hybrid fiber-cable system, bandwidth limitationsmay continue to pose problems. While video compression schemes mayassist in bringing the bandwidth requirements within more practicallimits, each subscriber would then need to be provided with his owndecompression unit.

Another problem lies in how to handle the switching and computingdemands on the headend to provide separate and private informationservice to potentially hundreds of thousands of subscriberssimultaneously.

In one paper, it has been suggested that a portion of cable systembandwidth be used to provide the most popular channels universally toall subscribers and remaining services be delivered to individual busseson a demand basis only. Large, D., "Tapped Fiber Vs Fiber-ReinforcedCoaxial CATV Systems: A comparison of Evolutionary Paths," Draft Paper,Aug. 4, 1989, at pages 16 et seq. A three level distributed switchingsystem was proposed, with one switch at the headend to switch amonghubs, one at each hub to switch among distribution lines, and a thirdlevel "interdiction circuit" to select the service for each dwelling. Noarchitecture for such a scheme was proposed, and the author noted that"a significant development effort will be required". Id., at page 19.Moreover, the author notes that his scheme poses a problem for thesubscriber in using the system, because most channels will be accessedin the normal way using the television tuner while switched servicesmust be accessed by first tuning to an available switch channel, thenusing an auxiliary communications device to control that channel. "Giventhat customers have historically resisted any complications created bycable companies in accessing services, this may be a potential problem."Id., at 20.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides in a preferred embodiment a system thatachieves distribution of conventional cable services in traditionalmanners while providing interactive television information services on ademand basis using a switching arrangement, and it does so whilesurprisingly permitting both types of service to be accessed, as in thepast, by the single action of channel selection.

In a preferred embodiment the invention provides an interactivetelevision information system, for providing interactive cabletelevision service when coupled to a cable television system having (i)an information source available at a headend for supplying a pluralityof information services and (ii) an information service distributionnetwork for delivering the information services to subscribertelevisions. In this embodiment, the interactive television system has aplurality of home interface controllers. One such home interfacecontroller is associated with each subscriber television and provides anoutput in communication with the subscriber television and has (i) asignal input for television information signals and an input selectionarrangement for selecting a given one of the television informationsignals at the signal input, (ii) a channel selection arrangement forpermitting a user to select an apparent channel, and (iii) a datatransceiver operative over a data communications link. The embodimentalso has a node, in television communication with the information sourceover a first path of the network and with a group of the home interfacecontrollers means over a second path of the network, and in datacommunications with the home interface controllers over the datacommunications link. The node selects and provides information servicesobtained from the information source to each home interface controllerin the group based on data obtained over the data communications linkfrom each such home interface controller.

In one embodiment, the node and each home interface controller are soarranged that when any of a first group of apparent channels is selectedon a given one of the home interface controllers, the node provides toit different information services on different apparent channels in thegroup all via the same television information signal selected by theinput selection arrangement of such given home interface controller at asingle carrier frequency for such given home interface controller. Inthis way different information services may be selected by the usersimply by changing the apparent channel. Furthermore, the channelselection arrangement in each home interface controller includes anarrangement for causing each selected channel in a second group ofapparent channels to correspond to a different selected carrierfrequency of a television information signal at the signal input. Inthis manner, selecting different apparent channels can also be used tocause the selection of different conventional cable channels. Thuschannel selection permits the user to select any information service,regardless whether it is conventional or interactive.

In a further embodiment, the node includes an activity detectionarrangement for determining whether a given home interface controller isto be placed in an interactive mode. The node also includes a signalassignment arrangement for causing, on an affirmative determination bythe activity detection arrangement, the input section arrangement of thegiven home interface controller to select a given television informationsignal present at the signal input. In this embodiment, signalassignment is accomplished on a demand basis for those home interfacecontrollers determined to be placed in an interactive mode. When thedemand exceeds the supply, the assignment is achieved with rules forresolving the contention, for example, by permitting the first homeinterface controller to keep its assigned frequency until the activitydetection arrangement detects that the interactive mode is no longer ineffect.

In related embodiments, the distribution network may include a pluralityof express trunks. Each trunk has a first bandwidth portion carryingnon-interactive television information services that are substantiallyidentical in nature and in bandwidth allocation among all trunks. Asecond bandwidth portion of each trunk carries television informationservices on a demand basis established by subscriber usage of the homeinterface controllers utilizing the trunk for service. The datacommunications link may include a return path, from each home interfacecontroller in a collection of neighboring home interface controllers, tothe node in which a common trunk line is utilized for all of the homeinterface controllers in the collection.

This embodiment may further utilize a main trunk carrying televisioninformation signals for non-interactive information services from theheadend to each of the express trunks. Also an interactive trunk maycarry television information signals for information services on ademand basis from the headend to each of the express trunks. A splittersplits from the interactive trunk the television signals for informationservices on a demand basis for each of the express trunks. A group ofcouplers couples the signals from the main trunk and the splitter tofeed each of the express trunks.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other aspects of the invention will be more readily understoodby reference to the following detailed description taken with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic of an interactive television information system inaccordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, showingrelations with national and regional processing centers;

FIG. 2 is a schematic showing the manner in which a multiheadend systemwith fiber optic interconnection may be employed to provide interactivetelevision service in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic showing an embodiment similar to that shown inFIG. 2, but in which a headend may have wireless communication withsubscribers;

FIG. 4 is a schematic showing a mixed fiber optic coaxial cable systemin accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 illustrates the general architecture of outbound signal flow andtwo-way control in a system in accordance with a preferred embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 6 illustrates the manner in which the architecture of a systemsimilar to that of FIG. 5 uses controls to handle a wide range ofinformation services in both analog and digital formats and distributionarrangements;

FIG. 7 provides further detail of the system of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 shows the signal processing aspects of the system of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 shows detail of the splitter and combiner of FIG. 7;

FIG. 10 shows the allocation of frequency bands in the express trunks ofFIG. 9;

FIGS. 11A-11D show the structure of a chassis in accordance with apreferred embodiment of the present invention for holding multimediacontrollers (MMCs) and modulator cards constituting components of thesystem illustrated in FIG. 7;

FIG. 12 illustrates the structure of analog MMC and modulator cards forthe chassis of FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 illustrates the structure of preferred embodiments of the audiosubsystems for the MMCs of FIGS. 12 and 14;

FIG. 14 illustrates the structure of digital MMC and modulator cards forthe chassis of FIG. 11;

FIG. 15 illustrates the structure of the data communications link at theheadend (node) of the system of FIG. 7;

FIG. 16 illustrates the structure of the encoder/modulator of FIG. 12;

FIG. 17 illustrates the structure of the video processor of FIG. 16;

FIG. 18 illustrates the structure of the sync generator lock andscrambler timing section of FIG. 16;

FIG. 19 illustrates the structure of the audio processor section of FIG.16;

FIG. 20 illustrates the structure of the rf upconverter section of FIG.16;

FIG. 21 illustrates the structure of a scrambler for use with themodulator of FIG. 16;

FIG. 22 illustrates the seed data timing used in connection with thescrambler of FIG. 21;

FIG. 23 illustrates the structure of a descrambler suitable for use in ahome interface controller in accordance with a preferred embodiment ofthe present invention for descrambling a video signal that has beenscrambled by a system in accordance with FIG. 21;

FIG. 24 illustrates an alternative scrambling system;

FIG. 25 illustrates a descrambling system for use with video that hasbeen scrambled by the system in accordance with FIG. 24;

FIG. 26 illustrates the input and output structure of a home interfacecontroller in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 27 illustrates an embodiment of the controller of FIG. 26;

FIGS. 28 and 29 illustrate embodiments of digital decompression andmultimedia versions of the controller of FIG. 26;

FIG. 30 illustrates an alternative embodiment to the system of FIG. 7 inwhich the node is disposed at a feeder;

FIG. 31 shows the bandwidth usage in a system in accordance with that ofFIG. 30;

FIG. 32 shows the general architecture of outbound signal flow andtwo-way control in a system in accordance with the embodiment of FIG.30;

FIGS. 33 and 34 illustrate use of the channel menu system in accordancewith a preferred embodiment of the invention; and

FIGS. 35-41 illustrate use of the carousel menu system and of the mannerin which the invention in a preferred embodiment provides interactionwith the user.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS

For the purposes of the description herein and the claims that followit, unless the context otherwise requires, the terms "cable televisionenvironment" and "cable television system" include all integratedsystems for delivery of any information service to subscribers for usein connection with their televisions. These include conventional cabletelevision systems utilizing coaxial cable for distribution primarily ofbroadcast and paid television programming, cable television systemsusing fiber optics and mixed fiber optic-coaxial cable, as well as othermeans for distribution of information services to subscribers.Similarly, unless the context otherwise requires, the term "informationservice" includes any service capable of being furnished to a televisionviewer having an interface permitting (but not necessarily requiring)interaction with a facility of the cable provider, including but notlimited to an interactive information service, video on demand, localorigination service, community event service, regular broadcast service,etc. "Television communication" means providing an information servicevia a television information signal. A "television information signal"is any signal that may be utilized by a television for video display,regardless of the form, including a standard NTSC-modulated rf carrier,an MPEG-compressed digital data stream, or any other format."Interactive television service" means an information service thatutilizes an interface affording two-way communication with a facility ofthe cable provider. When a node is said to be in an "interactive mode,"it means that the node is providing an information service to the homeinterface controller; the home interface controller may, but need not,be furnishing data to the node as to what information service toprovide.

In FIG. 1 there is shown the relationship of a cable television systemin accordance with the present invention to regional and nationalprocessing systems. A headend 11 is in communication with a plurality ofnodes 12 that in turn communicate with set top units 13, which below arereferred to as "home interface controllers". Each of these homeinterface controllers has a remote control 14 operable by the user. Eachheadend 11 may obtain items for use in providing an information servicefrom a regional processing center 15, which in turn may obtain someinformation services from a national processing center 16. Theinformation services may include a wide range of offerings, such asclassified advertising services, newspapers, advertising, televisedcatalogue ordering, video on demand or near video on demand, etc.Information services that are conventional television networkprogramming may also be distributed from the national and regionalprocessing centers.

FIG. 2 is a schematic showing the manner in which a multiheadend systemwith fiber optic interconnection may be employed to provide interactivetelevision service in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. Apair of fiber optic cables 21 and 22 provide information services inclockwise and counter-clockwise directions (for redundancy in the eventof disruption of the cables) from super headend 28 to headend clients 24serving a number of cities 23. The super headend in turn may obtainconventional broadcast services as well as interactive informationservices from satellite receiver 27, and other information services fromservers 25 from regional processing centers, as well as WAN andinterexchange (IXC) facilities 26. Each headend client 24 may contain aninteractive service node, here designated by the trademark ISX, atrademark of ICTV, the assignee herein.

FIG. 3 is a schematic showing an embodiment similar to that shown inFIG. 2, but in which a headend 24 may have two-way wirelesscommunication using transceiver facilities 31 with subscribers. Atransceiver facility 31 may include a high gain antenna system 31acommunicating with a transceiver 36 coupled to a television 37 at eachsubscriber location. The antenna system 31a radiates rf signals fed bytransmitter 31b; the antenna 31a also receives signals from thesubscriber transceivers and feeds them to receiver 31c. The transmitter31b and the receiver 31c are linked to fiber optic receiver 32 and fiberoptic transmitter 33 respectively, which in turn communicate with theheadend 24 over optical fibers 34 and 35.

FIG. 4 is a schematic showing a mixed fiber optic coaxial cable systemin accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Inthis embodiment, main fiber trunks 42a carrying conventional cable andbroadcast programming go to optical receiver 43a, from which coaxialtrunks 44A (express trunk A), 44B (express trunk B), and 44C (expresstrunk C) derive regular cable television programming signals. Eachexpress trunk has a first bandwidth portion carrying thesenon-interactive television information services that are substantiallyidentical in nature and in bandwidth allocation among all expresstrunks.

An interactive fiber trunk 42b in FIG. 4 carries desired interactiveinformation services in the outbound direction that are not providedover main fiber trunks 42a, and these information services are fed intooptical receiver 43b. As will be shown in further detail in FIG. 9, theelectrical output of the optical receiver 43b includes informationservices in separate spectral portions for each of express trunks A, B,and C. This output is provided to hub splitter 46. The informationservices for each of express trunks A, B, and C are then translated intocommon spectral portions by hub splitter 46, and then fed to thedesignated trunks, where they are coupled to the conventional signalsvia couplers at locations 45a, 45b, and 45c on trunks 44a, 44b, and 44crespectively. It should be pointed out that although the informationservices for each of these trunks occupy similar spectral regions, theirinformation content is different, since the information content of theinformation services on trunk A is supplied on demand to the homeinterface controllers served by trunk A, the content on trunk B issupplied on demand to the home interface controllers served by trunk B,and the content on trunk C is supplied on demand to the home interfacecontrollers served by trunk C. Thus a second bandwidth portion of eachexpress trunk carries television information services on a demand basisestablished by subscriber usage of the home interface controllersutilizing the trunk for service.

The path of inbound data from the each express trunk 44A, 44B, and 44Cis from a splitter at each of locations 45a, 45b, and 45c respectivelyto hub combiner 47. The inbound data, like the outbound interactivetelevision information services, on each of the express trunks occupysimilar spectral regions, although the data on each express trunk havedifferent information content reflecting the particular demands made bythe home interface controllers using each particular express trunk. Theinbound data from each trunk are frequency shifted by hub combiner 47 inthe manner described in further detail in connection with FIG. 9 tocause the data from these trunks to occupy separate spectral regions,and the output of the combiner 47 feeds optical transmitter 42c. Theoptical transmitter 43c feeds the optical fiber trunk 42c to provide acommon trunk return path, for all the home interface controllers servedby express trunks 44A, 44B, and 44C, for the interactive headend 41.

FIG. 5 illustrates the general architecture of outbound signal flow in asystem in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention. At the super headend, for example, item 28 in FIG. 2, avariety of sources of information services are available fromsatellites, antennas, servers, and gateways, and they are routed tosubscribers via routing switchers 52. A portion of these informationservices may, but need not, be provided to all subscribers as basicnon-interactive service. The routing switchers 52 feed appropriatemodular multimedia controllers 53 (MMCs) which may provide appropriateprocessing for providing the service in question to each subscriber.Differently configured cards are used depending on the nature of theinformation service. Where the information service is interactive, anindividual MMC 53 is assigned on a demand basis to each requesting homeinterface controller, which is in data communication with MMC, and theMMC provides interactive television information service. Post switchers54 switch the MMC outputs to appropriate modulators 55, which are inturn grouped so that their outputs feed rf combiners used for each fiberoptic transmitter 57 and associated optical fiber 58. As indicated byitem 59, two-way control, to be discussed in further detail below, isexerted over the outbound signal flow from end to end.

FIG. 6 illustrates the manner in which the architecture of a systemsimilar to that of FIG. 5 may handle a wide range of informationservices in both analog and digital formats and distributionarrangements. A super headend 28 may obtain some information servicesvia television receive only (TVRO) system 61a and downlink 62a, as wellas over line 61b using, for example, T1 or T3 bands or ATM digitalprotocols and gateways 62b. The super headend 28 furnishes informationservices 64 via switch 65 to the headend 11. These information servicesmay include video on demand, near video on demand, and multimediapresentations. They are provided under the general control of controlmanager 62c over control bus 63a. A central database may be maintainedon server 64a for all subscribers as to the types of service subscribedto and terms for delivery of service, and the delivery of services tothe subscribers is monitored and controlled over the control bus 63a byservice manager 63. The control manager also has supervisory control onbus 63a over the input switch 66 to headend 11. This switch 66, havingan input from the output switch 65 of the super headend 28, feeds theanalog MMCs 67a for analog signals in conventional formats and digitalMMCs 67b for signals in digital formats. The MMC outputs are thensubjected to modulators for appropriate frequency translation (item 68a)and to distribution 68b over the cable network to subscribers havinganalog converters 69a or digital converters 69b. Interactive informationservice is enabled by the net manager 66a, which maintains two-way datacommunication over gateway 66b with each of the converter types 69a and69b.

FIG. 7 provides further detail of a system in accordance with FIGS. 4-6.The information sources 51 from the super headend 28 feed its switch 65,the output of which is directed to the headend 11, which contains, in anode 77, input switch 66 feeding a series of MMCs, usage of which isallocated on a demand basis. As described in connection with FIG. 4,conventional cable broadcast channels are routed over main fiber trunk42a to express trunks 44A, 44B, and 44C. An interactive fiber trunk 42bcarries interactive channels (here called "virtual channels" for reasonsthat will be described below) to splitter 46 for coupling at 45a, 45b,and 45c to express trunks 44A, 44B, and 44C. Combiner 47 takes inbounddata from each of the express trunks for delivery over common data fibertrunk 42c to the node at the headend. Analog television informationsignals from appropriate analog MMCs are processed by scrambling at 73aand modulators at 73b, whereas digital television information signalsfrom appropriate digital MMCs are processed by combining them into acomposite QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) signal before going tomodulators at 73b. In this embodiment (as contrasted with the otherwisesimilar embodiment of FIG. 5), the modulators are preferably capable ofmodulating a carrier that is tunable by the network manager 66a, so thatany given modulator may be configured to best handle demands placed onthe system. (In FIG. 5, the modulators are associated with carriers atdedicated frequencies, and the inputs to the modulators are varied byswitch 54.) Depending on capacity of the cable system and theinformation services sought to be delivered, some of the cable broadcastchannels 72 may alternatively be provided, over path 72a to the MMCs, asinformation services on demand furnished by node 77. (Such an approachmay conserve bandwidth on the cable distribution plant 68b or permitmore offerings to be made to subscribers.) Additionally, the path 72apermits the MMCs operating interactively to permit a subscriber to makeoverlays on otherwise conventional cable television programming. Theoutputs of items 73b are then combined by combiner 73 and fed to theinteractive trunk 42b. The cable distribution plant 68b includes bridgeramplifiers 74, feeders 74a, feeder amplifiers 74b, and cable drops suchas 75a, 75b, and 75c serving homes 76a, 76b, and 76c.

The information services can be provided to a subscriber over virtualchannels in which the channel number changes for different interactiveinformation services, even though the various information services maybe provided over a fixed frequency input to the set top, with thecontrol data from subscriber's set top causing the headend to supply adifferent information service as the subscriber appears to be changingthe channel. This feature is described in further detail below.

The modular structure of the node 77 and the arrangement of thedistribution plant 68b permit serving simultaneously homes such as 76awith a conventional converter, 76b with a digital set top having MPEGdecompression, and 76c with a digital set top having multimediacapability achieved with a home-based central processing unit. Each homehas a home interface controller operating as part of the set topconfigured as described below.

FIG. 8 shows the signal processing aspects of the system of FIG. 7. Thisfigure does not show the distribution system, and therefore appliesequally to telephone or cable distribution architectures. An analog MMC82a in the node at headend 11 will typically pick off, under control ofa central processing unit (CPU), a television information signal indigital form from switch 66 and then decompress the signal, subject itto appropriate frequency translation by a modulator and provide over thedistribution system to homes where a conventional set top in block 81acan permit the signal to be demodulated for display by the television. Adigital MMC 82b in the node at headend 11 also operates under control ofa CPU, but does not need to decompress the signal. The signal issubjected to appropriate frequency translation and then distributed tothe home. At the home, in block 81b, the signal is demodulated anddecompressed at the set top for display by the television. In the caseof digital multimedia set tops in the home, it is primarily frequencytranslation that needs to be provided at the headend node, which isachieved by gateway card 82c, and the set top in block 81c includes theCPU for processing of the signal from the headend.

FIG. 9 shows detail of the splitter 46 and combiner 47 of FIGS. 4 and 7.Signals fed into splitter 46 include spectral regions for televisioninformation signals 91A for information services on demand forsubscribers served by express trunk 44A and for outbound data 95A forproviding interactive service to these subscribers. Similarly, there arespectral regions for television information signals 91B for informationservices on demand for subscribers served by express trunk 44B and foroutbound data 95B for providing interactive service to thesesubscribers; also television information signals 91C for informationservices on demand for subscribers served by express trunk 44C and foroutbound data 95C for providing interactive service to thesesubscribers. The signals in these spectral regions are subject tofrequency translation so that corresponding bands 92A, 92B, and 92C ineach of express trunks 44A, 44B, and 44C respectively carry televisioninformation signals for information services on demand to subscribersserved by these trunks. Frequency translation is also used so thatcorresponding bands 94A, 94B, and 94C carry outbound (downstream) datafor providing interactive service to these subscribers in eachof-express trunks 44A, 44B, and 44C respectively. As discussed above inconnection with FIG. 4, conventional cable channels occupy correspondingbands (here shown as item 90) in each of the express trunks.

Inbound (upstream) data for interactive service are handled by the hubcombiner in the reverse manner. The data initially occupy correspondingbands 93A, 93B, and 93C on trunks 44A, 44B, and 44C, and are subject tofrequency translation by combiner 47 so that the inbound data from trunk44A occupy a first spectral region 96A, the inbound data from trunk 44Boccupy a second spectral region 96B, and the inbound data from trunk 44Coccupy a third spectral region 96C.

FIG. 10 shows the allocation of frequency bands in the express trunks44A, 44B, and 44C. The return data in band 93 occupy the 15-18 MHzregion. The downstream data in band 94 occupy the region above channel 4in the range 72-76 MHz. The television information signals forinteractive service in band 92 are located above the allocation 90 forconventional cable broadcast channels. These frequency assignments aremerely illustrative, however. Moreover, the television communicationsand the data communications between node and subscriber home can beachieved in a wide variety of formats. Instead of putting eachtelevision information signal on a separate carrier at a separatefrequency in the express trunks 44A, 44B, and 44C, for example, thesignal could be provided as a compressed digital data stream on atime-shared basis or as addressed packets. In fact, data communicationsin both directions (inbound to the node and outbound to the homeinterface controller) in accordance with a preferred embodiment of theinvention utilizes slotted ALOHA protocols, so that data communicationsutilizes addressed packets.

FIGS. 11A-11D show the structure of a chassis in accordance with apreferred embodiment of the present invention for holding multimediacontrollers (MMCs) and modulator cards constituting components of thesystem illustrated in FIG. 7. A rack 112 in FIG. 11A holds switch 66 ofFIG. 7 along with the MMCs and encoder and modulator cards 73a and 73bof FIG. 7. The MMCs and other cards are mounted in rows 114 of the rack112. Each row of cards is supported on a chassis 113 shown in FIG. 11D.The MMCs (called processor line cards in FIG. 11B and processors in FIG.11D) are plugged into the left, rearward portion of the chassis 113, andthe encoder and modulator cards are plugged into the right, forwardportion of the chassis. The central vertical member 115 of the chassisprovides on both sides buses for digital and rf communication, as wellas power for the cards that are mounted on either side of the chassis.The chassis 113 is mounted in the rack 112 so that the processor linecards 67 face the reader in FIG. 11A. It can be seen, from the codeletters in FIG. 11A for the card types listed in FIG. 11B, that a widerange of specialized MMCs may be employed to permit the system toprovide a wide range of information services in a wide range of formats.Thus MMCs may be employed for movies only (A) (providing, for example,decompression of stored digitally compressed movies in MPEG format), forproviding multimedia presentations using software utilizing the Intel486 microprocessor (B) or the Intel Pentium microprocessor (C), or using3DO or SGI formats (D and E). Digital MMCs (item (configured withcorresponding modulator as suggested in item 82b of FIG. 8) (item F), aswell as various communications cards including some with Live Sync(permitting interactive overlays on broadcast programming) (G) andpermitting Home-v-Home communications (by which subscribers in two ormore homes may communicate interactively, for example, in a computergame) (H) and gateway cards (I) are also provided. (Live Sync andHome-v-Home are trademarks of ICTV Inc., the assignee herein.)

FIG. 12 illustrates the structure of an analog MMC 125 and ascrambler-modulator card 126 for the chassis of FIG. 11. The MMCincludes a video sub-system 121 and audio sub-system 122 operating undercontrol of CPU 127 and control line 128 from the net manager 66a of FIG.7. Line 128 also is in communication with sources of informationservices, which receive decompression by block 121b and are mixed in thevideo effects and mixer module 121d. The module 121d also receives inputfrom graphics digital-to-analog converter 121c (providing, among otherthings, display for subscriber interaction) utilizing data from RAM/ROMstorage 121a and control/content bitstream data obtained over line 128.TV tuner 129 also provides video signals from conventional cabletelevision channels over line 72a to the module 121d. The RGB/YUV outputof the module 121d is provided to the scrambler-modulator card 126. Themodule 121d also receives a composite sync signal input fromscrambler/encoder 123 for use in providing a system timing reference tothe video overlay.

The audio sub-system 122 in FIG. 12 has a coupling to TV tuner 129(redrawn in this sub-system for convenience in reference) to provideaudio signals from conventional cable television channels over line 72ato a mixer 122e, which also receives signals from background musicsource 122b, tactile response source 122c (for use in connection withthe subscriber's remote control 14 in interactive television service),and digital program source 122d, which obtain control and content dataover line 128. MTS stereo audio output of the mixer 122e is thenprovided to the modulator 124 of card 126.

The scrambler-modulator card 126 takes the RGB input from the videosub-system 121 and encryption control signal from CPU 127 to provide ascrambled video output to modulator 124. The audio output of the mixer122e of the audio sub-system 122 is fed directly to the modulator 124.The frequency of the carrier that is modulated is determined by controlof the net manager over line 128.

The structure of digital MMC and modulator cards 141 and 142 shown inFIG. 14 is similar to that of the analog cards in FIG. 12. The TV tunerand graphics digital-to-analog converter outputs are mixed as in FIG.12. Instead of decompressing the digital video source before feeding itto the mixer module 121d, however, the compression here is maintainedand sent directly to MPEG mixer 144a as MPEG source 2. The analog outputof mixer 121d is compressed by compression encoder 144, which alsoreceives the MTS audio output. The output of the compression encoderserves as source 1 input to MPEG mixer 144a. This MPEG output is thensent to encoder 143 and modulator 124. The MPEG mixing in block 144a isachieved by recognizing that the graphics overlay data fromdigital-to-analog converter 121c provides video content that does notchange rapidly, and therefore can be implemented by causing the mixer toaffect only the I-frame picture elements in the MPEG compression schemewith respect to the overlay content. (MPEG's compression scheme isdescribed in "C-Cube CL450 Development Kit User's Guide," dated Dec. 14,1992, Chapter 2, available from C-Cube Microsystems, Milpitas, Calif.,which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.) The MPEG mixer 144includes an arrangement for providing the source 1 MPEG-encoded digitalsignal to a buffer; an arrangement for extracting from the source 2digital signal I-frame picture elements to be overlayed; and anarrangement for overlaying the I-frame picture elements from the source2 digital signal onto the corresponding regions of the I-pictures of thesource 1 digital signal. The other picture types of the source 2 signalare not permitted by the mixer to modify portions of the I-picture thathave resulted from the mixing.

FIGS. 13A-13C illustrate the structure of preferred embodiments of theaudio subsystems for the MMCs of FIGS. 12 and 14. In these embodiments,there are provided mixer 122e and, controlling its operation, a CPU 131,which may, but need not, be the same as CPU 127 of FIGS. 12 and 14. TheCPU 131 of FIG. 13A is operated in association with synthesizer 133. Thecontent bitstreams on line 128 may include digitally compressed audiothat is decompressed by block 135. These embodiments also have anoff-air tuner 132, which may, but need not, be the same as tuner 129 ofFIGS. 12 and 14. Other formats of digital audio, shown here converted bydigital-to-analog converter 134, are also within the scope of the use ofthese embodiments. In lieu of synthesizer 133 there may be provided asecond decompression unit 135a (FIG. 13B), and similarly, in lieu ofdigital-to-analog converter 134, there may be provided a thirddecompression unit 135b.

FIG. 15 illustrates the structure of the data communications link at theheadend (node) of the system of FIG. 7 with subscriber home interfacecontrollers downstream. Outbound data leave gateway 66b via line 153awhere they go out over the interactive fiber trunk 42b. Inbound dataenter gateway 66b via line 155a from common return line 42c. Theoutbound data leave from rf modulators 153 utilizing frequency shift key(FSK) encoding via encoders 152, and the inbound data enter via rfdemodulators 155 using FSK detectors. Communications processing of thedata is handled by communications processor 151 under control ofcompatible PC having microprocessor 156a, ROM 156b, and RAM 156c. Thecontrol may be managed additionally via network transceiver 157. Theslotted ALOHA protocol used in a preferred embodiment for inbound andoutbound data communications requires that each home interfacecontroller is assigned an address for data packets that are used incommunication with the node. When a subscriber causes his home interfacecontroller to select a virtual channel, the net manager 66a of the nodeis signalled to that effect. The net manager 66a, on determining that agiven home interface controller is sought to be used for interactivetelevision service (i.e., that the given home interface controllershould be placed in an interactive mode), allocates additional datacommunication bandwidth for data communication with the particular homeinterface controller, so as to establish on a demand basis the datacommunications bandwidth utilized by the particular home interfacecontroller.

Depending on the nature of the information service selected by thesubscriber in selecting a particular virtual channel, an appropriate MMCis assigned by the net manager 66a on a demand basis to serve thesubscriber's home interface controller while it is in the interactivemode. In the case of many types of interactive television service, thehome interface controller will have exclusive use of the assigned MMC, a"private line" to it over the data communications link and theinteractive trunk 42b. In the case of near video on demand, however,several home interface controllers may share the same time slot on amovie, for example, and these subscribers would have a "party-line" tothe MMC.

As described in further detail below, appropriate MMCs can be used toprovide overlays or other graphics on the television screen when thehome interface controller is appropriately equipped.

FIG. 16 illustrates the structure of the encoder/modulator 126 of FIG.12. It incudes a video processor 164 that has an RGB/YUV input andproduces a scrambled NTSC video output on line 123d. The video processorhas inputs from sync genlock/scrambler timing block 163, including 3.58MHz color subcarrier on line 163d, burst flag on line 163c, invertcontrol on line 163b, and sandcastle pulses on line 163a. The syncgenlock/scrambler timing block 163 has inputs including genlock/free runselect and encryption control 123c from CPU 127, and provides compositesync output on line 123a. The sync genlock/scrambler timing block 163also provides MTS subcarrier reference signal over line 123e to audioprocessor 162. The audio processor 162 includes standard MTS stereoaudio inputs for left, right, and secondary audio program. The scrambledNTSC video signal on line 123d together with the MTS composite audiooutput of audio processor 162 are used to modulate a carrier at adesired frequency (established by the net manager 66a of FIGS. 6 and 7)by rf upconverter 161.

FIG. 18 illustrates the structure of the sync genlock/scrambler timingblock 163 of FIG. 16. It is used to generate a series timing signals forboth scrambling and overlay synchronization that are either genlocked toan external CATV signal or are otherwise inherently stable. The TV tuner129 of FIG. 12 additionally includes demodulator 186 in FIG. 18 and syncseparator 185. The sync separator includes stripped horizontal syncoutput from conventional cable television video on line 181a and framereset signal on line 182c. The stripped horizontal sync signal on line181a forms a reference for phase-locking a 3.58 MHz-oscillator in colorsubcarrier lock block 181, the output of which is furnished on line163d. The signal on line 163d is divided down to provide a horizontalreference signal on line 182d. The signal on line 182d provides areference for phase locking the generation of sync signals by syncgenlock block 182. This block provides composite sync and blankingsignals on lines 182a and 182b, as well as frame sync, horizontal sync,burst flag, and MTS subcarrier reference on lines 184a, 184b, 163c, and123e respectively. Block 182 provides frame sync and horizontal syncsignals to crypto logic block 184. It also provides composite sync andcomposite blanking signals to mode logic block 183. The crypto logicblock 184 and mode logic block 183 work in cooperation with one anotherto produce sandcastle pulses on line 163a in the manner described belowin connection with FIG. 21. The sandcastle pulses are used to providescrambled NTSC video in the manner also described below in connectionwith FIG. 21.

FIG. 21 illustrates an implementation of scrambling by crypto logicblock 184 of FIG. 18 in cooperation with mode logic 183 and videoprocessor 164. The scrambling is achieved by removing substantially allsync pulses from the NTSC signal. Infrequent (at least once per frame,two fields per frame) and randomly spaced horizontal pulses(sandcastles) are then reinserted. The effect of such scrambling is todeprive the standard NTSC receiver from obtaining horizontal andvertical sync lock with the incoming signal. This causes rapidhorizontal and vertical roll of the picture. During the intervals inwhich the removed sync signals were formerly present, the scramblerclamps the video to a nearly white level. As a result when the videosignal tends toward levels corresponding to black, the receiverfrequently interprets this video content as a sync signal, with thefurther effect that the horizontal rolling and the vertical rolling areaperiodic.

The sandcastles are reinserted at a pseudorandom position in eachconsecutive frame, determined by vertical random number generator 212 inFIG. 21. The line counter 214 is clocked by horizontal sync presented online 184b, and is reset by frame sync pulses on line 184 each frame. Theline counter 214 stores a new number from the vertical random numbergenerator 212 each time a frame reset pulse is received. When linecounter 214 has counted down-to zero from the stored number, it triggerstiming pulse generator 216 to send a pulse into mode logic control 183.Occasionally, on command from the load/count line 212a, the timing pulsegenerator 216 is caused to produce sandcastles in a plurality ofsuccessive lines. A command from the load/count line 212a also triggersthe loading from buffer register 211 of a previously stored seed value(loaded from line 211a) into both the vertical random number generator212 and the horizontal random number generator 215. The seed value andload/count numbers over lines 211a and 212a are provided by CPU 127 ofFIG. 12 on command of the net manager initially each time an MMC isassigned to serve a particular home interface controller andsubsequently whenever the home interface controller reports over thedata communications link that it has lost sync. Additionally the CPU 127may be programmed to generate new seed values and load/count numbers inaccordance with any desired strategy to resist efforts at rederivingsync without authorization.

Each sandcastle pulse looks like the sum of the composite blanking andcomposite sync signals. The shape of the sandcastle pulse is thereforesuch that when summed in the summer 172 of FIG. 17 with sync suppressedvideo, the result is a signal that has a normal NTSC blanking periodonce per frame, and moreover, the normal blanking period occurs atpseudorandomly located lines in successive frames. The sandcastle pulsesappear on line 163a from mode logic controller 183. Composite syncsignals 182a and composite blanking signals 182b are therefore summedand gated by the mode logic control 183 on receipt of pulses from thetiming pulse generator 216 as described above. The width of the timingpulse generator signal over line 184c, which governs the duration of thesandcastle pulse, is equal to the horizontal blanking period.

In a manner analogous to the functioning of the vertical random numbergenerator, the horizontal random number generator 215 issues a pulse atpseudorandom line intervals. Each pulse has the duration of the activevideo portion of one horizontal line, and is fed over input 163b so asto cause the video processor 164 to produce entire horizontal lineshaving inverted video.

FIG. 17 illustrates the structure of the video processor 164 of FIGS. 16and 21. Block 171 shows a RGB/YUV to NTSC converter that is suppliedwith conventional inputs (including RGB/YUV, 3.58 MHz color subcarrier,and burst flag) but, in this case, lacking any sync or blanking inputsignals. The converted output is standard NTSC with the exception thatall sync information is suppressed. The inverter 173, under control ofpulses present over line 163b, operates to invert the video on a randomline-by-line basis in the manner described in connection with FIG. 21above. The inverter output is then summed in summer 172 with thesandcastle pulses to produce the scrambled NTSC waveform describedabove.

FIG. 23 illustrates the structure of a descrambler suitable for use in ahome interface controller in accordance with a preferred embodiment ofthe present invention for descrambling a video signal that has beenscrambled by a system in accordance with FIG. 21. It will be recalled inconnection with FIG. 21 that the seed value and load/count numbers overlines 211a and 212a are provided by CPU 127 of FIG. 12 on command of thenet manager initially each time an MMC is assigned to serve a particularhome interface controller. The same seed value is also provided to theparticular home interface controller and is stored in the bufferregister 231. Each time a new seed value is loaded into buffer register211 of the scrambler, the same seed value is loaded into the bufferregister 231 of the descrambler. The value in register 231 remains inthe register until clocked into the vertical and horizontal pseudorandomnumber generators 232 and 235 respectively by a pulse from the timingpulse detector 238. The relative timing of the seed data, and theload/count pulses, and the occurrence of sandcastles in the scrambledNTSC video are shown as items 221, 222, and 223 of FIG. 22.

Timing pulse detector 238 monitors the incoming scrambled video overline 238a. The timing pulse detector 238 produces a clocking pulse whenit detects the plurality of pulses produced in the scrambled NTSC videowhen the scrambler in FIG. 21 received a load/count pulse over line212a. (In this manner the timing pulse detector causes the generation apulse at a time with respect to the received scrambled signalcorresponding generally to the occurance of the load/count pulse whenthe original signal was being scrambled.) The timing pulse detectorclocking pulse then causes the stored seed value to be loaded into thepseudorandom number generators 232 and 235.

The timing pulse generator 238 also detects the occurance of singlesandcastle pulses, and these are used to trigger the loading of the linecounter 234 and the reset of the sync generator 237. This generator isphase-locked to the color burst and therefore produces the necessarysync signals to reconstruct a descrambled NTSC signal. The compositesync and composite blank signals from the generator 237 feed sandcastlesummer 2331 to produce a full series of sandcastles for every line andthe entire NTSC frame structure. The output of summer 2331 goes tosandcastle complement generator 233, which gates the input every time asandcastle occurs on the scrambled video input line 238a. The output ofthe sandcastle complement generator is therefore a stream of sandcastlesthat lacks a sandcastle at each time, and only at each time, asandcastle is present in the scrambled video signal. This output is fedto the decoder/amplifier 236, where it is summed with the scrambledvideo signal to produce an output that has a sandcastle at every lineand is therefore a descrambled NTSC video signal.

In a manner analogous to the function of the inverter control on line163b of FIGS. 21 and 17, there is produced an inverter control signal online 235a by the horizontal pseudorandom number generator 235, whichproduces a pulse at time corresponding to the production of a pulse byhorizontal pseudorandom number generator 215. This control signal online 235a causes a second inversion (and therefore restoration) of thepreviously inverted line of video caused by inverter 173 of FIG. 17. Theresult is fully restored NTSC video on line 236a.

FIG. 19 illustrates the structure of the audio processor section 162 ofFIG. 16. Left and right audio inputs from audio sub-system 122 areprovided to the sum and difference matrix 191. The L+R sum output online 191a is subjected to low-pass filter 1921 and pre-emphasis filter1923. Similarly, the L-R difference on line 191b is subjected tolow-pass filter 1922 and dbx compressor 1924 and the compressor outputis fed to a double balance mixer 193. MTS subcarrier reference signal online 123e is subject to frequency division by divider 195, and furtherfrequency division by halver 196. The output of the first divider 195 isbandpass filtered by item 1971, and the resulting output is furnished tothe double balanced mixer, so as to produce a double sideband suppressedcarrier signal on line 193a. This signal is summed by summer 194 withthe pre-emphasized L+R signal on line 1923a and the SAP subcarriersignal, the latter which is provided by SAP subcarrier generator 198, towhich the SAP signal from audio sub-system 122 is supplied. Thisproduces a composite BTSC signal on line 162a, which is furnished to rfupconverter 161 described in FIG. 16.

FIG. 20 illustrates the structure of the rf upconverter section 161 ofFIG. 16. The inputs include BTSC audio on line 162a and scrambled NTSCvideo on line 123d. The video input is provided to an a.m. modulator2011 and the audio input is provided to an f.m. modulator 2012, and therespective modulator outputs are summed in summer 202. The output of thesummer is bandpassed by filter 2031 and amplified by amplifier 2032. Theamplifier output is mixed with the signal from first local oscillator2043, and the desired upper sideband is amplified and bandpass filteredby amplifier 2042 and filter 205. This intermediate frequency signal isthen run through amplifier 2051 and mixed in mixer 2052 with a signalfrom a second local oscillator 2053 that is frequency agile (here aphase-locked oscillator). The output is amplified (in amplifier 2053)and low-pass filtered by filter 2054, to eliminate the upper sideband,and the resulting signal is amplified by amplifier 2055 and provided asan output on line 161a. (This output is fed to combiner 73 of FIG. 7.)

FIG. 24 illustrates an alternative scrambling system. The system has anNTSC sync stripper 241 that supplies sync stripped video to a mixer 243,which masks sync signals by supplying a chroma subcarrier at all times,including during horizontal and vertical retrace. In addition, theluminance signal is caused to be present at all times.

These results are achieved by using the vertical and horizontal syncoutputs from stripper 241 to provide an output from OR gate 2461 wheneither of both of vertical and horizontal retrace signals are present.This output gates via switch 242 a pink noise luminance masking signalfrom generator 2421 into the mixer 53. This output also is affected viaswitch 247 by a pink noise signal from generator 2471 used in turn tomodulate phase-locked loop oscillator 244 to produce a modulated chromasubcarrier masking signal. This signal is subject to an optionalprogrammable phase delay 245 to cause different phase shift of thesignal during the color burst interval on a line-by-line basis inaccordance with a phase offset generated by pseudo random generator2451. The composite sync signal output from stripper 241 is providedwith an encrypted value for the current phase shift caused by generator2451. The encrypted value is obtained from DES encoder 248, and thisencrypted value, a digital signal, is placed on the signal during thevertical blanking interval as a binary pattern by vertical blankinginterval data encoder 249. The composite sync signal is then subjectedto an optional variable time delay by delay 2491 by a reference valuethat is also obtained from pseudo random generator 2451. Of course aseparate generator could be used, provided that the value obtained fromsuch a generator is also encoded on the composite sync signal. Thisresultant scrambled composite sync signal is then provided as an output.This system therefore provides a continuously present chroma subcarrier,a continuously present luminance signal, and shifts the color burst by arandom amount. The scrambled video is therefore relatively difficult todescramble, without access to the method of scrambling.

FIG. 25 shows a video descrambler system for descrambling the videoscrambled in accordance with a system such as shown in FIG. 24. Thescrambled video signal provided over line 259 is gated off during boththe vertical and the horizontal retrace intervals by gate 251, therebyremoving the masking signals that interfere with proper sync, and theproper sync signal, presented on line 2543, is also added to mixer 253to provide the composite video output over line 2532. The scrambled syncpresent at input 258 is first used to provide the encrypted delayinformation (if an encrypted delay is used) which is decoded from thevertical blanking interval data by decoder 255 and deciphered by DESdecoder 256. The scrambled sync signal is run through the programmabletime delay 257 to provide a composite sync signal that is in phase withthe video. Sync separator 254 provides separate outputs for vertical andhorizontal sync as well as a gate signal for the color burst. Thevertical and horizontal sync signals are run through NOR gate 2541 andOR gate 2542, so that 251 gates off the video during vertical andhorizontal retrace except during color burst. Optional video decoder 252separates the chroma subcarrier (in the event that it is phase shifted),and the separated subcarrier is run through optional programmable phasedelays 2531 in an amount specified by the decrypted delay data torecover the original phase of the subcarrier. The resultant correctedsubcarrier is mixed with the luminance and audio subcarrier and thecomposite sync signal by mixer 253 to provide a descrambled compositevideo signal over line 2532.

FIG. 26 illustrates the input and output structure of a home interfacecontroller 13 in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention. The controller includes input and output connections 261 forcable television rf, a video cassette recorder interface 262, anexpansion interface 263 (for providing for baseband video; ports forprinter, modem, and computer; and power line interface), infra-redtransmitter port 264 for communication with conventional set top, videocassette recorder, and television, infra-red receiver port forcommunication with remote control 14, rf output 266 for communicationwith a television receiver, and baseband outputs 267 for communicationwith a television monitor.

FIG. 27 illustrates an embodiment of the controller of FIG. 26 suitablefor analog television signal inputs. The rf cable television input 2711feeds diplex filter 271, the high pass section of which feeds televisioninformation signals and downstream data to line 2712 and splitter 2714for division among VCR rf output at 2782, control data receiver 2751 andtuner 272. The low pass section receives upstream data communicationsfrom control data transmitter 2752 over line 2713. Tuner 272 is switchedbetween VCR rf output 2782 and the television information signals fromline 2712. The tuner's output is fed to descrambler 373, which isbypassed by switch 2731. Genlock block 2732 provides sync signalsnecessary for permitting overlay controller 2733 to function properlywith the tuner output. The overlay controller's output is fed directlyto baseband video output 267a, and the tuner's audio output is routedthrough volume control 2741 to baseband audio output 267b. A channel3/channel 4 modulator 274 coupled to these baseband outputs provides rfoutput over line 266 to the subscriber television. Switch 2741 switchesthe television between the home interface controller's televisioninformation signals and the VCR's rf output. Data communicationsinvolving the data receiver 2751 and the transmitter 2752 is handled bydata communications processor 275, and the information flow is via databus 279 to and from set top processor 276, infra red interface 2761 forthe remote control 14, overlay controller 2733, tuner 272, and volumecontrol (setting) 2741.

FIGS. 28 and 29 illustrate embodiments of digital decompression andmultimedia versions of the controller of FIG. 26. The embodiment of FIG.28 is similar to that of FIG. 27, except that there is also provided ahigh-speed data receiver 281 having an input connected to splitter 2714.The output of the high-speed receiver feeds digital decompression module282. This module has an audio output feeding mixer 283 along with theaudio from tuner 272 and a video output that can be switched into theoverlay controller 2733 by switch 285, the other position of whichcauses the overlay controller 2733 to obtain its video solely from theanalog origin as before.

The multimedia embodiment of FIG. 29 represents a further enhancement ofthe embodiment of FIG. 28. In addition to the high-speed data receiver281, there is a high-speed data transmitter 291. These communicate withdata bus 279 via high-speed data interface 292. Frequency control ofcommunication at these data rates is assisted by frequency control block2941. Audio mixer 295 operates under control of sound microprocessor2943. Additional effects are achieved by multimedia processor 2944, andoverlay and effects block 2942.

FIG. 30 illustrates an alternative embodiment to the system of FIG. 7 inwhich the node 302 is disposed at a feeder 74a, typically proximate toabridger amplifier 74. In some embodiments where abridger amplifier mayserve a plurality of feeders, the node may similarly serve homeinformation controllers on each of these feeders. In this embodimentmain trunk 301 feeds express trunks 44. Bridger amplifiers 74 aredisposed at locations where the feeders 74a are connected to the trunks44. At a tap 303 is disposed drop 75 to a subscriber home having a homeinterface controller 13 and remote control 14.

FIG. 31 shows the bandwidth usage in a system in accordance with that ofFIG. 30. The bandwidth is limited at the node 302 by a low pass filterso that digital carrier signals 319 at the bandwidth portion above theregion 315 allocated to ordinary cable channels cannot reach the homeinterface controllers downstream of the node on the feeder 74a.(Alternatively, the bandwidth may be limited naturally by the bridgeramplifer 74, with the node in communication with the trunk 44.) Theremoved digital signals in the bandwidth 319 may typically carrycompressed digital television information, and those of these signalsthat may be needed to serve downstream home interface controllers areobtained by the node 302 and remodulated to provide interactivetelevsion service downstream in the same spectrum 317 utilized upstreamby the digital signals 319. Decompression of the digital signals may beaccomplished either at the node 302 or at the home interface controllers13. Thus the node 302 is able to utilize, uniquely for communication tothe home interface controllers 13 associated with its own group offeeders 74a, the interactive channel bandwidth 317 shown in FIG. 31.Each node may utilize this bandwidth region independently of the othernodes, because signal transfer among nodes in the frequency spectrumportion 317 is small, and in any event can be controlled betweendifferent nodes. Above the bandwidth used for delivery ofnon-interactive television signals, including region 315 of the system,is placed the spectrum portion 317 used for carrying interactivetelevision information signals from the headend. Inbound return datacommunications is achieved utilizing lower frequency band 316, with highpass filter at each node to prevent unwanted signal transfer; freshremodulated carriers are introduced at the node for upstreamcommunications. Guardbands 318 are placed between bands 315 and 317 andbetween 316 and 315 to prevent interference. Each node 302 then achievesutilization of those interactive television information signalspertinent to the subscribers associated with such node who have obtainedaccess to such signals.

FIG. 32 shows the general architecture of outbound signal flow andtwo-way control in a system in accordance with the embodiment of FIG.30. At the feeders 74a is disposed the node 302, which may include an rfbus and tuners to demodulate television information signals (which mayinclude conventional cable television signals as well as interactivetelevision signals) from the headend. An MMC 53 with related modulator,as in the above embodiments, is placed in direct communication with ahome interface controller 13 on a demand basis, so that the node 302functions in essentially the same manner as does the node 77 when it isplaced in the headend.

FIGS. 33 and 34 illustrate use of the channel menu system in accordancewith a preferred embodiment of the invention. FIGS. 33 and 34 showapparently different channels used for different information services,here TV listings (channel 31) and classified advertisements (channel37), even though in the manner described previously, the frequency overwhich the home interface control unit receives information that has notchanged. The term "different information service" as used in thisdescription and in the claims following can mean any information servicein a mode appearing to be different to the subscriber, including aninteractive service in a different information area, or a differentinteractive service, or a different television broadcast signal providedby the headend, etc.

FIGS. 35-41 illustrate use of the carousel menu system and of the mannerin which the invention in a preferred embodiment provides interactionwith the user. FIG. 35 illustrates an embodiment of the carousel menusystem in accordance with the invention when an interactive informationservice has been selected. (In this case, the interactive service isclassified advertisements.) The carousel here shows three faces, one ofwhich is a frontal face. The frontal face shows one or more menuchoices. The two side faces shown are greeked, so as to display theapparent availability of other choices if the carousel is caused torotate so that one of the side faces is moved to the frontal position.Via operation of the overlay 2733 described in connection with FIGS.27-29, or the video effects and mixer block 121d of FIGS. 12 and 14, acursor can be moved over the television display by the remote unit 14,and when the cursor overlays the menu choice of interest, the choice maybe selected by pushing the appropriate button on the remote unit 14.Depending on the choice selected (and if subchoices are required by thearea of interest in particular interactive information service), thecarousel is momentarily shown to be apparently rotated in one directionor another, and thereafter another set of choices is caused to appear onthe frontal face, the flanking side faces again being greeked.

FIGS. 36 through 41 illustrate how interactive television service may beprovided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention. IfTV listings (here channel 31) has been selected, there is displayed agrid portion, which can be shifted on screen for viewing the grid in theentirety. Shown in FIG. 36 is a portion of the grid display, plottingtelevision programs as a function of channel and time for a given dateand portion of the day; and the date and portion of the day can beselected by the subscriber.

The "Smart TV" selection permits the subscriber to search for programsor other information service offerings in the manner illustrated insubsequent figures. The carousel choices indicated in FIG. 37 permit thesubscriber to find programs and movies by subject, by show, or by actor.Other choices permit the subscriber to program his favorite channels andfind offerings on those channels, or to identify offerings on a pay perview basis, or to return to the grid of FIG. 36. If the "by actor"selection is made, the alphabetical menu of FIG. 38 is presented. Tofind listings for "Bogart", the top button "ABCDE" would be selected,producing the display of FIG. 39. Thereafter, the "B" button would beselected, and from the list of actors whose names beginning with "B" aredisplayed, one could select "Bogart", and eventually produce the listingand choices shown in FIG. 40. One could, for example, chose to recordCasablanca on June 24, producing the display of FIG. 41, including thechoice of being notified of other Bogart movies in the future.

What is claimed is:
 1. An interactive television information systemcoupled to a cable television system having (i) an information sourcemeans available at a headend for supplying a plurality of informationservices and (ii) an information service distribution network, fordelivering the information services to subscriber televisions, theinteractive television system comprising:a plurality of home interfacecontrollers, one such home interface controller associated with eachsubscriber television, for providing an output in communication with thesubscriber television and having (i) a signal input for televisioninformation signals and input selection means for selecting a given oneof the television information signals at the signal input, (ii) channelselection means for permitting a user to select an apparent channel fromany of a first group of apparent channels and a second group of apparentchannels, each apparent channel in the second group of apparent channelscorresponding to a different television information signal available atthe signal input, and (iii) a data transceiver operative over a datacommunications link; node means, in television communication with theinformation source means over a first path of the network and with agroup of the home interface controllers over a second path of thenetwork, and in data communications with the home interface controllermeans over the data communications link, for selecting and providinginformation services obtained from the information source means to anyhome interface controller in the group based on data obtained over thedata communications link that indicates a selection of an apparentchannel from the first group of apparent channels by such home interfacecontroller; wherein the node means and the home interface controllersare so arranged that the node means provides different informationservices on different apparent channels from the first group of apparentchannels all via the same television information signal selected by theinput selection means of a given one of the home interface controllersas the channel selection means of such given home interface controllerchanges its selection from one of the apparent channels in the firstgroup of apparent channels to another apparent channel in the firstgroup of apparent channels and so that when any of the second group ofapparent channels is selected on a given one of the home interfacecontrollers, the input selection means of such given home interfacecontroller selects the television information signal at the signal inputcorresponding to the selected channel.
 2. A system according to claim 1,wherein each of the television information signals provided to thesignal input of the home interface controllers has a different carrierfrequency, the signal input of each home interface controller is an rfinput, and the input selection means of each home interface controllerincludes means for tuning to a desired information signal carrierfrequency.
 3. A system according to claim 1, wherein each of thetelevision information signals is provided to the signal input of thehome interface controllers on a time-shared basis and the signal inputselection means of each home interface controller includes means forselecting the time slice assigned to a desired television informationsignal.
 4. A system according to claim 1, wherein each of the televisioninformation signals is provided to the signal input of the homeinterface controllers as an addressed series of packets, the signalinput of each home interface controller may be assigned a unique packetaddress, and the input selection means of each home interface controllerincludes means for causing a television information signal to beaddressed to the home interface controller associated with such inputselection means.
 5. A system according to claim 2, wherein the nodemeans includes frequency assignment means, operative over the datacommunications link, for assigning the desired carrier frequency withrespect to which television communication with the given home interfacecontroller occurs when an apparent channel in the first group isselected.
 6. A system according to claim 5, wherein the frequencyassignment means includes activity detection means for determiningwhether any home interface controller is seeking to select an apparentchannel in the first group and for causing assignment of the commoncarrier frequency only after a positive determination by the activitydetection means, so that frequency assignment is accomplished on ademand basis for those home interface controllers determined to haveselected an apparent channel in the first group.
 7. A system accordingto claim 5, wherein the node means includes barker signal generatormeans for generating a barker signal at a fixed carrier frequency forprompting a user whose home interface controller is tuned thereto toaccess an apparent channel in the first group.
 8. An interactivetelevision information system coupled to a cable television systemhaving (i) an information source means available at a headend forsupplying a plurality of information services, and (ii) an informationservice distribution network, for delivering the information services tosubscriber televisions, the system comprising:a plurality of homeinterface controllers, one such home interface controller associatedwith each subscriber television, for providing an output incommunication with the subscriber television and having (i) a signaloutput for television information signal and (ii) a data transceiveroperative over a data communications link to the headend; a plurality ofsubscriber selection devices, one device associated with each homeinterface controller and in communication with the data transceiver, forpermitting subscriber interaction; and a plurality of interactivecontrollers, disposed at the headend, each interactive controller (i) intelevision communication with the information source means and (ii) inassignable television communication over the network with an assignedhome interface controller and (iii) in assignable data communicationover the data communications link with the assigned home interfacecontroller, so that the interactive controller furnishes the informationservice interactively over the network to the assigned home interfacecontroller and its associated television.
 9. A system according to claim8, wherein the data communications link is over the network.
 10. Asystem according to claim 9, wherein the data communications link isoperative at a radio frequency independent of any frequency used fortelevision communication over the network.